CHAPTER 6 MORPHOLOGY

Morphemes: Examples, Definition & Types

Its the smallest unit for measuring an

element.

If you think of the Periodic Table of Elements, atoms are what

comprise elements, such as hydrogen, carbon, silver, gold, calcium,
and so on. Scientists utilize this classification system for uniformity,
so that they're on the same page in the terminology of their studies.
Similarly,linguists, or those who study language, its history, and
development, have devised a category for the smallest unit of
grammar:morphemes. Morphemes function as the foundation of
language andsyntax, the arrangement of words and sentences to
create meaning.
We shouldn't confuse morphemes as only a given word, number of
syllables, or only as a prefix/suffix. The term morpheme can apply to
a variety of different situations. Let's take a look!

Types
In linguistics, we would further classify morphemes as either
asphonemes(the smallest units of grammar recognizable by
sound) orgraphemes(the smallest units of written language). For
our purposes, we will focus on graphemes.
Let's examine the wordnonperishable, analyze it, and then discuss
terms associated with it.
Nonperishablehas:

3 morphemes -non-,perish,and-able.
five syllables /nn-per...bl/
This a good example of why morphemes and syllables are not
synonymous.
Non-is an example of aprefix, or a morpheme that precedes abase
morpheme.Perishis an example of a base morpheme, as it gives
the word its essential meaning.-Ableis an example of asuffix, or a
morpheme that follows a base morpheme. Bothnon-and-ableare
examples of anaffix, a morpheme attached prior to or following a
base that cannot function independently as a word.

A Morpheme as a Word
When we can take a morpheme independently and use it as a standalone word in a sentence, it is known as a base. As the chart indicates
above, these can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions,
prepositions, or determiners. We also classify a morpheme that can
function as a stand-alone word asfree.
In the sentence, 'The bird-like man hardly touched his food at dinner,'
How many morphemes are there?
There are a total of 11 morphemes, and 9 of the 11
are free:
1. The
(part of speech: article)
2. bird
(part of speech: noun)
3. man
(part of speech: noun)
4. hard
(part of speech: adjective, but with the -ly:
5.
adverb)
(part of speech: verb)
touched
(part of speech: determiner)
6. his
(part of speech: noun)
7. food
8. at
(part of speech: preposition)
9.
(part of speech: noun)
The
other two morphemes, '-like' and '-ly', are types of affixes, which
dinner
brings us to our next topic.

A Morpheme as an Affix
An affix is aboundmorpheme, which means that it is exclusively attached to
a free morpheme for meaning. Prefixes and suffixes are the most common
examples:
Common prefixes: re-, sub-, trans-, in-, en-, ad-, dis-, con-, comCommon suffixes: -s, -es, -able, -ance, -ity, -less, -ly, -tion
Affixes

An "affix" is a bound morpheme that occursbeforeor after a base. An affix

that comes before a base is called a "prefix." Some examples of prefixes
areante-,pre-,un-, anddis-, as in the following words:

Antedate, prehistoric, unhealthy, disregard

An affix that comes after a base is called a "suffix." Some examples of

suffixes are-ly,-er,-ism, and-ness, as in the following words:

Happily, gardener, capitalism, kindness

It is also important to note two types of

affixes:inflectionalandderivational

Derivational Affixes

An affix can be either derivational or inflectional. "Derivational

affixes" serve to alter the meaning of a word by building on a base. In
the examples of words with prefixes and suffixes above, the addition
of the prefixun-to healthyalters the meaning ofhealthy. The
resulting word means "not healthy." The addition of the suffix-erto
gardenchanges the meaning ofgarden, which is a place where
plants, flowers, etc., grow, to a word that refers to 'a person who
tends a garden.' It should be noted thatallprefixes in English are
derivational. However, suffixes may be either derivational or
inflectional.

Inflectional Affixes
There are a large number of derivational affixes in English. In
contrast, there are only eight "inflectional affixes" in English, and
these are allsuffixes. English has the following inflectional suffixes,
which serve a variety of grammatical functions when added to
specific types of words. These grammatical functions are shown to
the right of each suffix.
1. -s noun plural
2. -'s noun possessive
3. -s verb present tense third person singular
4. -ing verb present participle/gerund
5. -ed verb simple past tense
6. -en verb past perfect participle
7. -er adjective comparative
8. -est adjective superlative